Eccles fills the mid-week spot this week.
Another fun puzzle from Eccles with the usual smooth surfaces and some crafty definitions. Overall we found this slightly easier than average. Others may disagree but we weren’t that keen on the clue for 23ac and we’d never come across the phrase at 25ac before.
SLANG (informal speech) IN G (German) MATCH (square, as in to make equal)
F (following) US (American) S (society)
COUNT (nobleman) in or ‘inspired by’ NEWRY (Irish city)
STAND (tolerate) round or ‘bored by’ R (last or ‘latest’ letter in Twitter)
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of SHAM (bogus) + O and NIX (two versions of zero or ‘zip’)
TIVOLI (park in Denmark) with the ‘T’ ‘cycled’ to the back in or ‘surrounded by’ FRY (youngsters)
GIF (‘picture file’ in computing) + T (time)
HELp (assist) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ + M (mark)
PAL (friend) MA (mother) in or ‘welcomed by’ LASS (girl)
IR (Inland Revenue) ON HAND (available)
A reversal (‘on retirement’) of TROuSER (‘nick’ – steal) without the ‘u’ (uniform)
Unless we have completely misunderstood this, we assume that Eccles is referring to the BARS that Bach was BEHIND as being of the musical variety. Not one of our favourite clues.
BaCK (endorse) with the ‘a’ (American) replaced by U (university)
A clue-as-definition (and a new phrase for us): an anagram (‘after training’) of I DROP EPISTLES – apparently a ‘spoiled priest’ is one who was student for the priesthood but who has withdrawn or been dismissed.
S (first letter or ‘head’ of sports) PUTTER (club) – we spent a long time trying to figure out why this might be ‘scutter’ – ‘c’ for club and ‘utter’ for speak, but obviously couldn’t fit it to ‘rapidly and indistinctly’ as the definition
Alternate letters (‘now and then’) of fAnTaSiEs + A (are, as in the metric unit of land area measurement)
Fans of tennis champion Rafael Nadal might shout GO NADAL at Wimbledon
An anagram with NEW as the anagrind of DASTARDLY CON
MOO (low) LAH (note)
Another clue-as-definition? An anagram (‘possibly’) of TRIO and SALON – a hairdressing salon’s business could be described as ‘tonsorial’
An anagram (‘off’) of RIPS in or ‘cracking’ HAT (headgear)
VALE (glen) NT (New Testament – ‘books’) IN O (first or ‘initial’ letter of online)
HARE (run) round N (new) + SS (steamship)
A service may be charged PER USER (for each customer)
APRIl (month) without the last letter or ‘nearly’ + COT (abbreviation or ‘little’ for cotangent – ‘function’)
V AND A (museum – Victoria and Albert) + L (last letter or ‘close’ to Whitehall)
Hidden (found’) and reversed (‘overturned’) in wastepapER BASket
I think your parsing of 23 is correct. There’s a little more to the surface reading, in that Bach did actually spend a short time in prison, for the crime of wanting to change jobs. See here for more.
Thanks Eccles and B&J. I found this as enjoyable as ever from Eccles but slightly trickier than usual thanks to some well concealed/misleading definitions, eg FRIVOLITY, which I think was my favourite clue in the end.
SPOILED PRIEST also stood out – a new phrase for me too, but it had to be that. Very nicely clued.
Thanks for the extra info on 23a, Andrew. Neat.
SPOILED PRIEST: ‘After training, I drop (out?)’ is understood. What is ‘epistles’ doing in the def?
Do spoiled priests always become postmen?!
If it’s referring to the Epistles in the Bible, can’t connect.
I am missing something.
CHAMONIX is my top pick.
Thanks Eccles, Bertandjoyce
Should one have heard of Tivoli? Didn’t know that, didn’t think of fry and was diddled by the definition, so no cigar for me. SPOILED PRIEST was good to learn about and a great clue, GONADAL favourite.
So what does GONOVAK mean?
And did Judas Priest change their name?
Seriously though, Eccles is always enjoyable and challenging
‘Cycling’ as an anagrind. Face palm. I saw the ‘v’ and the ‘l’ and went ‘velo’. Loi. Great clue and excellent puzzle so to single out one is to do an absolute injustice to others but I’ll go for ‘moolah’ and ‘gonadal’ as my top two clues because they made me laugh. Couldn’t parse ‘New Country’, ‘Chamonix’, or ‘resort’ but I can now. 4d was adroit. Liked.
Great fun as ever from Eccles, and this was probably at the easier end of his spectrum. All his usual cunning definitions and smooth surfaces are in evidence.
Add me to the list of those who have never heard of a SPOILED PRIEST.
Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J.
Quite amazing that a setter can get something as specialised as SPOILED PRIEST and as dreadful as GONADAL into the same puzzle!
My favourite, once I’d worked it out, was FRIVOLITY.
Thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the review.
I thought BEHIND BARS was a bit weak too, but there’s obviously more to it – thanks for the link, Andrew @1. Another never to have heard of SPOILED PRIEST, though I didn’t have any problems with it as a clue-as-definition (‘epistles’ being an example of what is found in the Bible), dare I suggest (probably incorrectly) even an &lit.
Favourite was the ‘reportedly bogus zips?’ for CHAMONIX.
Thanks to Eccles and B&J
I couldn’t see the second part of CHAMONIX but it’s obvious now – it was the ‘bogus’ that threw me – are they? Thanks anyway to Eccles and B&J.
Tatrasman @10: it was the ‘bogus’ that threw me – are they? I’m not sure if you’re being tongue in cheek. Just in case you’re not, I don’t think the bogus has anything to do with the two zips. Bogus is the homophone that gives you Cham and the two zips finish the word. If you were being tongue in cheek, then you got me.
I found this a mix of quick solves followed by ones with rather more headscratching, but all enjoyable. Spoiled priest was definitely in the latter category and only got solved when all the crossers were in place, but now I know the phrase it will get shared with some of my clergy friends.
12A was both my LOI and, when the last bits fell into place, my favourite.
Thanks to Eccles and B&J
rookie @6 cycling is a (relatively rare) clue type in it’s own right. It means move the first letter to the back and repeat as often as needed to get the letters to become the new word. e.g. cycling ATE can give TEA and EAT but not ETA
Thanks to Andrew for explaining BEHIND BARS – now a very clever clue! Also thanks to Sheepish for explaining ‘cycling’. We have both been busy all day and have only just sat down with a cup of tea.
We found this trickier than the reprinted Eccles from 2017 in today’s i, and needed wordfinder and anagram solver help to finish. We can’t say we were imprressed by 3dn or 25ac but we did like FRIVOLITY and TONSORIAL.
Thanks, though, to Eccles and B&J.
rookie@6: There’s also a subtle difference between an anagram and a ‘cycling’ clue. Cycling can be applied to a synonym or example of the word required (as in this case ‘Tivoli’ for ‘park’). But an anagram must be of the actual word(s); for example you cannot ask the solver to derive ‘roach’ from ‘fish’ to provide an anagram of ‘orach’ (a plant) – that’s an indirect anagram and almost a capital offence in crosswordland!
Thanks Sheepish @13. Grist to the mill.
Thanks also to allan_c @16 – much appreciated.
Thanks to BertandJoyce, and all commenters. Re 3d, this was submitted before the Tory leadership contest started, but I did notice a lot of comments on Twitter along the same lines as a possible catchphrase in support of Nadine Dorries.